Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-05-31
TEA, COFFEE AND SUGAR.

How some Of Gotham's Solid Mes
Nimbly Hunt h spry sixpence.
Part of Wall street Is not Wall street at
all. Down by the ferry, around Front
and Water streets, there is no stock and
bond flavor whatever. Things down there
smack of China. Of Java, Of Brazil, and
of Cuba. but of nothing nearer home.
Down there the big men in tea, coffee,
sugar and molasses rule the roast. IL
there Is any boarding house keeper who
wants to buy the tableluxuries by the ton
or the cargo, just drop around, but other
wise stick to the corner grocery. There
is where the solid men of New York and
Brooklyn nimbly hunt the spry sixpence.
At home these heavy citizens are never
asked to do anything, but down there on
the market they skip around like Wallets
to Mammon. With a painful of green
coffee beans in one hand and a little paper
of Oolong in the other, they jump to
serve their masters whims.
II seems funny TO see the millionaire
pumping a long flat stick up and down
through the bunghole Of q hogshead Of
molasses ON the street, running his dia-
mond studded fingers along it, and scoop
ing the saccharine treacle into his gold
plugged mouth. He is an expert, hut he
cannot lick his fingers any better than the
rude untutored urchin who steals q lesson
at it when the expert turns his back.
Over on the Office steps stands q man
whose trotters will by and by be spurning
the dust of Central avenue from their
hoofs. Look at him sitting coffee. How
complacently he rattles the sieve. Look
at him watt it from side to side. and toss
its contents up and down like a pancake.
What is he doing? Blowing the chaff
out Of it. It's a sample, and the pur-
chasing iobber is at hand. He has Just
roasted u few handfuls in his own little
rooster in the Office, for he himself
bought the coffee green.
-Four times a year-in March, June,
September and December-the Dutch
government sells coffee at public auction
in Padang. The Dutchman there meas
ures his coffee by the picul Q36 pounds)
and values it by the guilder fifty cents,
so the New Yorker just figures ont the
equivalent OF say, twenty cents a pound.
and cables his limit to his agents, and
they bid the Dutch a~uctioneer 50 much
and no more. The day after the sale
everybody in the trade knows who
bought, how much he bought and what
he bought nj. The conundrum then is:
What profit il he satisfied with What
will he sell at!
One funny thing about the Java coffee
business is that there are about five times
as many pounds of it sold over the
g~rocer's counter as there are grown on
the island. As Mark Twain says. this
would look like a discrepancy. or hiatus,
but we've got to accept facts as We find
them.
Coffee from Padang to New York,
after a voyage Of 100 days. arrives more
Oh less sweated. This part is all SKINNED
of in Brooklyn warehouses and afterward
sold as ''skimmings'' to jobbers at a re-
duced price. II was never known to go
any further than that. because the retail
ers never sell you anything but pure
OH pONcTiilltUt JAVA.
In the tasting room Of a large firm of
| tea brokers in Water street half a dozen
men OF critical palates sit around a re-
volving table slipping tea from delicate
china cups. It's n tea party, but what a
tea table. No cloth. no milk. no sugar,
no gossip! A circle of cups outside of a
ring Of canisters. a copper kettle Of boil
ing water, and that's all-strictly bust
ness. They sip. and they smack and
they spit. A brass spittoon. as high as
the table, and looking ike a German
trombone Strengthened out, receives all
the ciccte1 liquor.
Some time ago New York started tea
auctions every week, and Chicago Is fol.
lowing suit. but tea IL commodity that
loses its flavor very Cgsily, and Chicago's
msavory origin pIohably has a Hool deal
to do with her fgiluT 10 rival the me.
tropolis c, 4 tea mart. The Wal street
auctions have become quito a srial nj.
fair. Coffee. sandwiches and napkins are
passed around among the guests. When
they sit down facing the auctioneer's ros.
trum. peEcils ard catalogues in hand. you
might easily imagine them a group OF re.
porters sitting IN execution on the --latest
imported lecturer. II is an ordinary
thing for 10000 half chests to b. sold
This means $50, coo pounds, and when 9
couple of ~spoonfuls make a nice cup oi
tea look at the delight in store for oul
grandmothers. New York Sun.